This bust portrait of Felipe IV on a dark background shows him wearing black clothing and a white ruff collar, which brings out the monarch's face.

Velázquez eschews the ostentation present in other portraits of the kings and offers a very close image, reflecting the king's most human condition without courtly artifice. The meticulous rendering of the facial features and the summary depiction of the suit stand out in this portrait that reveals Velázquez's capacity to capture the sitter's state of mind: the fatigue and melancholy of the last years of Felipe IV's reign.

It appeared in the collection of the Duke of El Arco in 1745 and became a part of the Royal Collection at that time.